Mark Swords | Important Dinosaurs In My Life | 2020 | Various materials on board

For Culture night 2023 the Arts Council will once again proudly showcase a selection of works recently added to its extensive Visual Art Collection.

To celebrate the evening we are sharing some insight on each of the artist and artworks which will be on display:

Sword’s work demands a close examination of its textures, layers, and marks – after sustained looking, eventually the viewer can make out the micro-narratives of Sword’s process, identifying elements that came first and last, discovering the remnants of brushstrokes not fully erased. But it is from a distance that these marks cohere; the colourful chirality taking shape among the chaos. This can be most clearly seen in Sword’s ‘Important Dinosaurs in My Life’ (2020), a mixed-media painting on canvas, that leant, stacked on white tiles, against the gallery walls… In Sword’s work, first impressions can often prove misleading. Signs turn out to be analytical dead ends. Close examination can prove that what appears to be an extemporaneous brushstroke is in fact part of an orderly and systematic pattern, or a vividly drawn, apparently focal detail might actually be a late addition to a work –

Eoghan McIntyre, ‘Tanad Aaron and Mark Swords, Portico, The Complex, 14–28 May 2021’ Paper Visual Art, 3 July  2021

Mark Swords (b.1978, Dublin) is an artist who lives with his family in County Wicklow, Ireland. Swords has exhibited his work widely, both nationally and internationally and is represented in numerous collections. His recent exhibitions include Tribuna, 2022 at The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, Dublin, Portico, 2021, with Tanad Aaron at The Complex, Dublin and TAUCHGANG, 2019, a group exhibition at Galerie Christian Lethert, Cologne. He is represented by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin.

The Arts Council Collection was established in 1962 and now comprises almost 1,350 works of modern and contemporary Irish art.

This year we are delighted to once again welcome audiences to the Arts Council buildings on Merrion Square to engage with some our most recent acquisitions.

Works by many of Ireland’s leading artists will be shown on the night including pieces by: Elizabeth Cope, Miriam De Búrca, Mollie Douthit, Justin Fitzpatrick, Marie Holohan, Helen Hughes, Catriona Leahy, Jialin Long, Kevin Mooney, Doireann Ní Ghrioghair, Emma Roche, Mark Swords, Amna Walayat and Orla Whelan.

As well as this glimpse into the Arts Council Collection for Culture Night, artworks can be seen all year round throughout the country as part of exhibitions and long term loans in public buildings such as hospitals, universities and schools.

Explore the Collection and more on our website here.